74 percent either want a dual-persona phone now, or are interested in the idea.

The rise of the smartphone has turned the workplace into a bring-your-own-device kind of world. In many cases, IT shops would like more control over the devices employees use for work, even if they are employee-owned. That's why the idea of the dual-persona smartphone—two phones on one device, separating work and personal applications—has become popular. But while dual-persona phone technology is being driven by employer demand, it turns out users want them too.

We polled Ars readers earlier this week to find out if you would like a phone that completely separates work and personal applications from each other. To be honest, we figured dual-persona phones wouldn't be that popular because of the inconvenience of putting work applications in an entirely separate part of one's phone. The poll results show otherwise.

The question we posed was "Would you use a dual-persona smartphone?" With 3,710 votes in our unscientific poll, 33.56 percent of readers said, "Yes, sign me up. I want a phone for work and personal stuff, but with a wall of separation between." Another 22.37 percent said, "Yes, but only if my employer paid for it." A further 18.54 percent said, "I'd consider a dual-persona smartphone if it's implemented in a more user-friendly way than current versions."

Adding those three together, that's 74.47 percent of you who either want a dual-persona phone right now, or would use one if it was employer-sponsored or if it could be implemented in a more user-friendly fashion.

The rest essentially want to keep things the way they are. 10.27 percent said, "No. I want to use my phone for work and personal stuff, but without any separation between the two." 8.87 percent said, "No, I would rather have one smartphone for personal stuff, and a second one for work." Finally, 6.39 percent said, "No way, I don't want to use a smartphone for work, period."

Now that we've seen the results, let's take a look at some of the comments that explain why readers voted the way they did.

Leaving work at work

One big motivation for wanting a dual-persona smartphone is the ability to compartmentalize work and personal lives. Once you leave the office, do you really want work messages showing up in your notification stream, demanding a response?

"I would love to be able to keep my work phone on lockdown once I leave work—that way I am not always connected to work and can more easily ignore it in the evening," reader cristobal1206wrote.

"Such a solution would be ideal!" wrote sonolumi. "Great for keeping the work side tidy, focused and well away from the clusterf... pages of trial apps and games I always seem to accumulate. Yes the untidiness is my fault, but anything that could help keep the important stuff away from my work would be welcome (yes, you did read it right)."

But is it secure and separate enough?

Some readers questioned whether current technology to separate the personal and work portions of a phone is really robust enough to protect users and their employers. The goal is to have absolutely no data leakage from one side to the other and to allow businesses to impose restrictions only on the work side. But is that the reality?

Billyk writes, "As one who has to carry a smart phone for work I like the idea... Rarely does the execution meet with what my idea of it should be though. My first issue would be if that my work phone was subpoenaed for a legal issue would the non work portion be discoverable?"

Bash adds that "[t]his would never work for defense contractors or government agencies requiring some kind of secure access to their networks. Too many possibilities for security holes…"

Concerns about security and privacy lead some to think that carrying two phones is the best option.

"Maybe I'm weird, but if I needed to use a smartphone for my job, I'd much rather have my own personal phone for my stuff and a physically distinct device for job stuff," Old_Fogie_Late_Bloomer writes. "But I'm paranoid about privacy, and also wouldn't want to surrender control of my personal devices to my employer (nothing against them, it's just a matter of principle)."

Bluloo writes, "I wouldn't want the same phone for work and personal use, unless the company guaranteed the user (in writing) complete control over/rights to privacy of all personal information on the device, and guaranteed that it would never be used (by them) to harm me."

"Of course you would want a phone where anything work-related is walled off," writes yosifcuervo. "It's about basic security. I happily engage in dangerous behavior on my phone all the time, and I really don't care about the consequences (what's the worst that could happen...?). When it comes to work, and access to internal networks and infrastructure, the bar must be set much higher. The consequences become much more real, and the potential damage that careless and uneducated users can do is already the bane of IT. The fact that there aren't good solutions for this already is the only reason it isn't required by default by any self-respecting IT department."

Hercules doesn't want to use a personal device for work in any capacity, writing, "If you want me to work after hours, you buy me a data plan and device. I'll carry two. I will never volunteer mine for company purposes. Otherwise you don't really want me to work after hours."

Usability needs improvement... but some good options exist

Some readers questioned whether dual-persona technology can be implemented in something resembling a user-friendly fashion. The common approach for today's dual-persona technology is to put all work applications and data into a password-protected container that is accessed by the user by clicking an app icon. Thus, work e-mail and other data is found in separate applications from the ones you use in your personal life. The employer can enforce restrictions, such as not allowing copying and pasting between work and personal apps, or preventing work documents from being e-mailed outside the company.

Trem writes, "I still think the usability has a long way to go before it can be both secure and easy to use. How do you explain to your users about the split personalities and how it works. How do you make sure that users know which mode they're in? When a user browses and hits share, how do you make it clear that the funny NSFW video is shared on your private Facebook and not the work account? I believe that this kind of issues will be fairly common with the design of current solutions."

A little more bluntly, Leather Rope writes, "From an IT perspective too many users are just dumb. They can barely dial. Duality would be beyond them."

Our article mentioned VMware's upcoming virtualization for smartphones, and the application Divide, which is already available and can be used to create dual personas on both iPhones and Androids.

Several readers also mentioned the existing Good for Enterprise and dual-persona technology from RIM that's slated to release with BlackBerry 10 in early 2013.

bruindrummer writes, "At my company our first attempt at this very thing was Good for Enterprise and I loved it. It had its own password, and all of my work information was sandboxed from my personal device." Unfortunately, bruindrummer notes that Good was replaced with Traveller for Lotus Notes in a cost-saving measure.

DaedalusIcarusHeliosis looking forward to similar functionality in BlackBerry, writing "The upcoming BlackBerry 10 natively supports this feature, and it is very seamless and easy to use. It would require BES 10 though to have the segregated work section (apps, etc.) that is encrypted. You can have both personal and work running apps in the active frames (running apps that look like widgets or tiles), so you can switch between them easily."

IT pros are cautiously optimistic

We also asked IT professionals to weigh in on whether dual-persona phones are a good idea from a business and technology perspective. Not surprisingly, they described the challenges in deploying dual-persona phones to the workforce, but said it ultimately might be worth the effort.

"I think this feature will become more and more popular over time," writes Cdclndc. "I have a company issued BB and I've been happy with it. Its selling point to me is I don't have to pay a dime for my phone or service/data. That said I would like to be able to divide the system and have a personal 'sandbox' away from work.

"The real trick comes from a business standpoint. While only a very small percentage of people where I work have company phones, almost everyone has a smartphone. We have been opening up company e-mails onto these regular phones because some people asked if they could do that for various reasons. When it all came down to it, it was in the company's best interest (from a management standpoint) to allow this. Why? So people could handle work correspondence when away from the office or while at home in the evening. It's essentially free work. You can not only keep people who wish work services on their phone productive (granted limited) outside the office all the while not having to pay for the device or data plan, it's a win all around for them."

How dual-persona phones get implemented obviously depends a lot on how security requirements vary from business to business.

Marlor writes, "At work, we lock down our iPhones to within an inch of their life. They have the apps we choose, and nothing more. All traffic is routed via our VPN and logged, even if the phones are used outside of the workplace. Only these locked-down phones are allowed on the network... As a result, many users have two phones: one for work, which is locked-down, and a personal phone that isn't used on the corporate network or connected to corporate computers.

"A dual-persona phone is a nice idea, as long as the barriers between the two personas are reliable, and as long as it can be locked-down to only connect to the corporate network when it is in 'work' mode. We usually lock down mounting of USB devices using DriveLock, so being able to do so for the phone depending on its persona would also be necessary."

Odds and ends

Some felt the poll options didn't capture exactly what they were looking for. Hoos offered an interesting alternative to the work/personal divide, saying, "I want a wall between my private life and my online persona. Currently, I do use different logins for different activities because my private life encompasses details (banking, family, etc.) that I don't want intermixed with my online life. For example, I do not want Facebook's photos polluting my contacts. (Yes, I understand that one can work around that. It's just an example and it's still not something I want.)"

Meanwhile, some commenters said they're interested in dual-persona phones for other reasons, such as being able to hand a phone to a child without worrying about the kid messing up any of the adult stuff. That already exists on some platforms, with Kid's Corner on Windows Phone, and the multi-user support in Android 4.2.

All in all, the poll results and comments showed strong interest in the concept of dual-persona devices. That doesn't mean everyone wants one—some emphatically do not. But as time goes on, the dual-persona option will become more prevalent, and it will be there if you want it.

45 Reader Comments

That already exists on some platforms, with Kid's Corner on Windows Phone, and the multi-user support in Android 4.2.

Seems like the obvious way to get it to me, for Android. One user account being "Personal" and one being "Work." Set them up as you see fit.

But first you need an Android 4.2 phone that has multiple user accounts enabled.

I kind of wonder how notifications would work though. Changing logins to switch between personal and work notifications could get irritating. And some notifications (especially personal) you might just not want to see while at work.

This is where ActiveSync could really be expanded. Work-related emails, contacts, calendars and tasks already come and go with the addition/removal of the account. Expand that to SMS (a dual-SIM'd phone could set communication for one SIM to sync to that account) and have everything work related by controlled by that account. No real need for dual-boots or virtual machines for work.

I work for a small business where we give certain people phones for work use. We have about 50 lines. The majority of the people seem to have decided that the phone is for both work and personal use, and we haven't really imposed any restrictions otherwise. I honestly think it has more to do with cost than ease of use - if your employer gave you a free phone with unlimited voice and data every month would you really still use your own phone as well? A lot of the staff at my job seem to say no!

I, on the other hand, have always kept my personal phone as well as my business one. I want it separate, I want to control my own phone. I can upgrade when I want, if I ever leave the company I don't have to worry about getting a phone, and more.

Would I use one phone for both if I was given one? Maybe. I actually would be interested in a phone that uses say time or geo-tagging. Once I'm within a certain time of day (8-5) or inside my work the phone could switch to "Business" mode, and when it's past 5 or I leave it switches to "Personal", all seemlessly. The one concern I would have is people being able to reach me on my "Personal" side during the work day, although there are workarounds (You're working, no personal! Or just give them the work number).

When it all came down to it, it was in the company's best interest (from a management standpoint) to allow this. Why? So people could handle work correspondence when away from the office or while at home in the evening. It's essentially free work. You can not only keep people who wish work services on their phone productive (granted limited) outside the office all the while not having to pay for the device or data plan, it's a win all around for them."

No, it's really a win for businesses. Most of the reason people on the bottom initially feel this way, is to try and "important-ify" themselves, so that they look like management material. The people on the top use this to jump out of work early, since "if anything bad happens, I'll know". Once those people on the bottom are working 60-hour work weeks (for free on salary) because their boss can call them while they're actually trying to enjoy life, they may reconsider.

I've seen plenty of people at my office pay data overages from their boss who loves to micromanage (and email screenshots). Meanwhile, their boss' phone is paid for by the company.

I want dual-persona phones, but no more so than 4.2 android will offer. Dual-persona for work just seems like a lot of extra hassle, as mentioned with the concerns in article. The only way I could see it working would be dual-hot swapping sim cards and two encrypted partitions for each card. That way user switch would literally switch between numbers and there is a clear divide between work and personal.

For most people work phones don't have any security, nor do the people using them even care about security. You're average sales guy that gets a work phone, is given the phone because he's just going to end up talking all day long on it anyway doing what sales people are supposed to do, communicate with customers and sell things. Out of laziness, and fact that they are on the phone 24/7 anyway. It just becomes their personal device as well. In which case, 4.2's user switching might see some use, but i suspect it'll largely be ignored.

This could however see some use in business tablets that might be shared between people at the company. Phones are just too personal.

Long answer: I worked at a human interface design firm and back in 2008 we worked on a project similar to this for a defense contractor (it was for military personnel). What the research looked like to me, in the end, is that the contextual overhead (in the user's mind) between switching is so large, that the fine line gets worn down between work/non-work.

Example: you're texting a friend while working to figure out lunch plans. Are you willing to switch accounts/permission-sets back and forth so you can text your friend and continue to check your work email?

We've already figured out the answer to this problem - combining the two devices into one device (owned by the consumer). This allows us to protect our privacy from our employer and integrate our work into our life to the extent that we desire.

Hoos offered an interesting alternative to the work/personal divide, saying, "I want a wall between my private life and my online persona. Currently, I do use different logins for different activities because my private life encompasses details (banking, family, etc.) that I don't want intermixed with my online life.

This. What I'm interested in doing is being able to use any app I want on the app store without worrying about what personal information I have to give the app. Right now I'm very cautious about what apps I download because of all the information they want in order to make the app "free". If my phone had a second persona with no real information then I wouldn't have to worry about that and I could download those apps on my "extra" persona.

When it all came down to it, it was in the company's best interest (from a management standpoint) to allow this. Why? So people could handle work correspondence when away from the office or while at home in the evening. It's essentially free work. You can not only keep people who wish work services on their phone productive (granted limited) outside the office all the while not having to pay for the device or data plan, it's a win all around for them."

No, it's really a win for businesses. Most of the reason people on the bottom initially feel this way, is to try and "important-ify" themselves, so that they look like management material. The people on the top use this to jump out of work early, since "if anything bad happens, I'll know". Once those people on the bottom are working 60-hour work weeks (for free on salary) because their boss can call them while they're actually trying to enjoy life, they may reconsider.

I've seen plenty of people at my office pay data overages from their boss who loves to micromanage (and email screenshots). Meanwhile, their boss' phone is paid for by the company.

Win all around?

cdclndc wrote:

"The real trick comes from a business standpoint.......it's a win all around for them.

To be honest, I did preface my quote with the 'from a business standpoint' disclaimer and ended it with 'it's a win all around for them.'. And yes, you pretty much stated what I was pointing out. That was if employees want to use their personal phones to handle some light email'esque correspondence outside of normal working hours than the business only stands to win, for management knows that they are getting extra time worked which is not being charged for.

This functionality though is not necessarily bad for the employee. Say he/she needs a bit of time off for an appointment during working hours. This individual would not be completely out of the loop as they have a valid business platform and can conceivably charge some time that would otherwise be lost by at least handling some functions while outside the office.

Might some take advantage of the situation, yes. It has been my experience though that in a professional environment that most, at least to my knowledge, don't.

The unlock screen could show a list of users. You select yourself, enter your PIN, and it reads your config files instead of your wife's. Easy peasy. They could even use facial recognition to pre-select me when I wake it up.

I would love a dual persona phone. I manage a corporate account with about 90 lines, and we allow some personal use (our rule is no overages, other than that, you're fine). Some people only have their company phone, others maintain a personal as well. I'd love to be able to take a personal phone image (like a VM image) to a new job, load it onto my company phone, and then use a single device for both jobs. If carriers got on board, and would let you run a second persona for a small additional fee, bill that additional persona fee to me for my personal device.

Another benefit to mention is the "green" aspect. A dual persona phone means a single device, not 2 phones. Fewer resources spent manufacturing fewer devices, and lower power consumption over the long term.

If my bosses want me to carry a phone for work they should supply that phone. And I sure as hell don't want any of my personal stuff on that device. There is way too much that could go wrong with the idea of using a single device for work and personal purposes even if each is walled off from the other. I'll happily keep the two phone system so long as I'm only paying for one of them.

Dual-persona should come with dual telephone numbers, or the separation is incomplete. Data separation is one thing, voice and text communications are another. There's no way I'd want my one-and-only personal phone number to also be my work number. If that means dual-SIM, where are those handsets? I know there are a few out there, but not in volume, and that tells part of the tale.

The reality of these corporate-mandated views and ability to wipe your phone (keeping in mind that the most popular of these tools, MobileIron, can see *anything* on your phone) are simply data-loss-prevention theater.

Think about it for a second. The last time I lost my phone (at FedEx field outside of DC) I simply called up and requested a replacement from the insurance plan I had purchased. I received the new phone the next day, logged in with my credentials to google, and within 20 minutes I had every single piece of data, every application, and every document I had lost less than 48 hours earlier.

So, assuming I'm a guy intent on stealing data from my company, what's to stop me from simply getting all that juicy IP onto my phone, leaving at the end of the day, then resetting and re-downloading all my data the next day, sans the mobileiron client?

When i first got a cell phone just over a decade ago, it was actuallly able to associate 2 phone numbers to it. 1 a work number, the 2nd my personal number. It wasn't a smart phone, and it would only keep 1 number active at a time, but it took about 2 seconds to go into the settings change over to the other number which I did first thing on the way into work in the morning or on my way out at night. If something important enough came up I would just give out both my numbers and say call both until I pick up.

The benefit of this for me was 1) I only ever needed to carry 1 phone around, and 2) when i went home I didn't need to worry about annoying work calls, when i was at work i didn't need to worry about annoying personal calls (what can i say I had the same profession and social life as dilbert at the time), but if something important enough came up I would just give out both my numbers and say call both until I pick up.

Unfortunately at some point Verizon dropped the functionality so the next time I needed a new phone I ended up with 2, theb just when when I finally decided having work a phone wasn't worth the hassle of having to carry around an extra phone all the time.

For me, this doesn't solve my problem. I work in a technical IT job so I know my tech, but I still want two devices. First of all, my Samsung S2 will last till the end of the day, if I'm going out after work till late (on a Friday), I can turn off features so it's still running at 7am when I try to get home. If it's being used for both, there is no way it would last that long. Second, it's MY device, and I will risk damage at my own expense, such as putting a custom ROM on there, which I've done. Installing software for work that I might not even want, just for my job, is not something I want to do. Third, I actually like my blackberry. It works, battery lasts for a long time, it's light and the keypad is far easier to type with then any touchscreen. I can text fine, but they are short messages. I wouldn't want to tap out whole e-mails on it while stood on the tube.

All this comes down to my device being mine and that's it. I can't see myself putting it all it one, ever. I will always say give me a phone or that's it. Do I see a world of a manager telling me "you have a smart phone so you have no choice"? Maybe, but then I wouldn't work there

I think the authors of this type of software, whether baked-in to mobile OS' or a separate application, need to read near-future science fiction. Like Charles Stross' Halting State and Rule 34. They have some detail in multi-persona phones, and other systems in place.

Though personally I am not sure I'd want to take up space on my personal phone for a work persona. Especially if it eats into whatever puny allotment of my personal data plan.

Vodafone Italy already offers it, it's called "Alter Ego", and it allow customers to have two phone numbers on the same SIM, so they can keep the business phone number and the private phone number separate.

Some phones even allow you to insert two SIMs so you don't have to depend upon a single carrier to give you two phone numbers.In Europe, where the prepaid SIM cards business is popular, people use it to make phone calls by switching to the carrier that has the lowest rate for that time of the day.

But this kind of business won't flourish in US until the unlocked phones become mainstream, the stigma of prepaid phones goes away, and the nonsense of buying minutes one year in advance disappear.

What the US need is something very simple:You use the phone, you pay. You don't use it, you don't pay.You make phone calls you pay, You receive phone calls you don't pay.And the same goes for Internet access. You buy 3 GB, when they're used up your phone stops connecting.

That already exists on some platforms, with Kid's Corner on Windows Phone, and the multi-user support in Android 4.2.

Seems like the obvious way to get it to me, for Android. One user account being "Personal" and one being "Work." Set them up as you see fit.

But first you need an Android 4.2 phone that has multiple user accounts enabled.

I kind of wonder how notifications would work though. Changing logins to switch between personal and work notifications could get irritating. And some notifications (especially personal) you might just not want to see while at work.

I'm thinking more along the lines of one user "Adult" and the other user "nannybot".

What I want is a single phone that works on ATT, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile.

merge the last mile spectrum and break up ATT / Verizon. That way One phone is all that needs to be made, and consumers win. That way, the last mile spectrum is actually used efficiently and consumers win. Data caps become a thing of the past, monarchy times.

I already own and carry two phones-- a smart phone and a feature phone. They are both personal, with some work information on each of them. I want this feature so I can better compartmentalize the data. Data management on phones is seriously lacking since Apple and Google both decided to suppress the filesystem and disallow multiple user accounts.

The survey and this article proposes using separate user accounts or a separate VM to recover some of this data management ability.

For data (personal or work) that cannot stand discovery by police or employers or 'bad guys', don't put that on your phone.

I guess this will be the real rest for RIM and BB10. From what I've seen about BB10 (I have had access to a BB10 phone from friends who work at RIM), it does work well. There is a clear separation between work and personal and it does do it in a seamless manner via Blackberry Fusion. Carriers should offer consumers a "dual personality" feature - it shouldn't be limited to just enterprises.

This would be a distinct feature of BB. Hope this really pays off for RIM.

The unlock screen could show a list of users. You select yourself, enter your PIN, and it reads your config files instead of your wife's. Easy peasy. They could even use facial recognition to pre-select me when I wake it up.

Are you serious or just joking? What you describe is how it is on non-iOS devices.

But the question was illogical to begin with. Why would anyone be *against* this idea? Either you want it, or you're indifferent about it.

I'd be against it, my phone is my own. Work provides me with a phone to use and that works fine for me. Why would I ever want to mix the two environments together? I like to know once i've finished work for the day that is the end of it.

There are too many things I can foresee going wrong with this idea. At the very least security, not just of work information but personal information you may not want your employer to potentially have access to.

I am personally enthralled at the idea of a phone that could be a phone while walking around a convention, but back at the hotel room you could plug in its charger, attach an HDMI monitor and use a BT keyboard and mouse booted into Ubuntu running on top of Android (or dual booted, whatever). Wouldn't that be the coolest thing? The Windows® 7 F-07C runs full Win7 alongside some alternate mobile OS, and can be used in both. While I don't want Windows on my phone, a "layer" of something really useful like Ubuntu that could display on an external monitor really has potential, at least in terms of awesomeness rather than actual commercial value that will be exploited by companies.

I am personally enthralled at the idea of a phone that could be a phone while walking around a convention, but back at the hotel room you could plug in its charger, attach an HDMI monitor and use a BT keyboard and mouse booted into Ubuntu running on top of Android (or dual booted, whatever). Wouldn't that be the coolest thing? The Windows® 7 F-07C runs full Win7 alongside some alternate mobile OS, and can be used in both. While I don't want Windows on my phone, a "layer" of something really useful like Ubuntu that could display on an external monitor really has potential, at least in terms of awesomeness rather than actual commercial value that will be exploited by companies.

I'm not sure how relevant this is - it's not the type of persona that the article is actually about, though perhaps you could get there from here. Dual-booting seems a rather clunky and time-consuming solution, if that's what you mean. Dual persona, in the context of the article, needs to be integrated and manageable in real time.

But if you're only daydreaming about a convertible, hybrid, or dockable whizbanger - well, wrong article. Ars Technica has covered a number of such devices, but that's not what this is about.

But the question was illogical to begin with. Why would anyone be *against* this idea? Either you want it, or you're indifferent about it.

Nope I actively don't want this feature on my phone. My phone is my own, if a feature like this became widespread then employers would start insisting on it. I don't want to be the odd one out because I insist on keeping work and play separate

Kids corner, however, is a nice idea. Children will always want to imitate their parents, so having a feature that can readily be accessed that will stop them from accidentally dialing, downloading or buying anything would be a nice feature.

RIM has solved the work/personal dilemma, well mobile phone wise, with BB10. Ontop of which you get the favourite OS of nuclear reactors & machines that go beep in hospitals, QNX (pronounced queue-nix) is a proper POSIX compliant realtime OS, complete with the Neutrino GUI built into the OS itself (sort of like BeOS) rather than some layered X-window kludge old nix clone like that Linux/BSD stuff (Android/IOS?). Actually at one stage Amiga was going to base their new OS on it (now there's a example of a corporation destroying a great product. Remember when W95 came out & all these people came out saying "well Apple had all that stuff for like... umm for 5 years", Well in that regard Amiga was to Apple what Apple was to Windows).

Plus as well as having it's own App API, BB10's backwards compatible for old BB apps & has a runtime for Android Apps

I remember playing arround with QNX's system on a floppy about a decade ago. You got a POSIX complient realtime OS, the Neutrino GUI, a filesystem & browser, a web browser,networking including drivers, plus dialup drivers too (I think you had a choice of either though, not both). It was pretty neat. I assume/think it loaded up on a RAM disc.